Cody Rhodes: I could never root against AEW

For multiple reasons, Cody Rhodes could never root against AEW.

Rhodes was one of the founding fathers of AEW, working as both a wrestler and executive vice president of the Tony Khan-owned company. But he departed the promotion in 2022 and is now the top champion in WWE. Rhodes has always said that he left AEW because of a "personal issue," though he's never gone into detail about what that issue was.

While appearing on Tuesday's episode of the Cheap Heat podcast, Rhodes was asked if he still finds himself pulling for AEW to do well:

These questions, I always now -- I'm very careful about because they're the number one question that will be cited when this interview hits. I'll say: the narrative changed a lot about my contributions to AEW, and that was very disappointing. There were some people, I'm not going to say their names, they know who they were, who kind of tried to put some propaganda out when I left. There's a quote in The Young Bucks' book about how I was last to the signing. And me and Matt & Nick [Jackson] are as close as ever, so glad that I've had them in my career and my life. But if we are being honest, AEW does not happen without me. It doesn't. And with that in mind, I could never root against it. It's like having a kid and they go off to college and they get a DUI or they get in trouble... I'll always have that in my heart for them.

It certainly was a wound that was more gaping and painful than people realize, because now they look at the situation and they're like, 'Oh man, you're on top of the world, you have everything.' Maybe they don't understand that I really gave everything I could. I did. And, yeah, I could never see a day where I was rooting against them.

Rhodes added that, even outside of his history with AEW, he understands how important the promotion is to the pro wrestling industry:

And then from a completely outside of me perspective, my relationship to AEW or anything, my friends, the kids I signed, the people from my school, all that stuff. But from outside of that, it's very important that they hang in there. Because if that was to go away, I don't think anybody in the locker room has any clue the financial repercussions that that would have on the wrestling business. The trickle-down effect it would then have on independent wrestling. We've created a really comfortable environment in sports entertainment for men and women to feed their families and to do well and to be treated on the level that their global penetration ask for. And I would hate to see that bubble burst. So that's another random fear I have of, you know, when they're down or if they're up or whatever it may be. But, yeah, I would never root against them -- in any case. That's not always easy because random things said about you at press conferences, and that's a big no-no, you should never say me or my wife's name, Tony should have told you that. So, yeah, I'll never root against them. I really won't.

At WrestleMania 40, Rhodes dethroned Roman Reigns to become the new Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. His first title defense will be against AJ Styles at Backlash in Lyon, France this Saturday (May 4). It's the first-ever Rhodes vs. Styles match.

Rhodes was not eligible to be selected in the 2024 WWE Draft due to his status as a champion. He remained a member of the SmackDown roster.